After market quality suspension components, stock replacement

Good morning lads and lassies.  So, the C30 is North of 110K miles and the suspension is due for a re-fresh.  I haven’t really driven the car since the Boxster came out of hibernation around March.  Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago a woman didn’t see me while backing out of a parking spot and hit my right rear ¼.  Pissed, but it’s only metal.  The car is in the shop being repaired so I pulled the Volvo out and have been driving that.  Oh boy, I didn’t realize how bad it had got.  Driving it daily back last winter I guess the deterioration had been sneaking up on me bit by bit and I had acclimatized to it.  I knew it needed shocks, and I have four new Koni FSD’s waiting to go on, I really should have done it long ago, but winter seemed a long way off.  Now I realize that I have to jump on things as soon as the Boxster is back.

I’ve now decided it needs at least new front control arms, end links plus probably top hats and tie rods/ends (one end was changed last year)  Up until now every component I’ve put on the car has been Volvo OEM parts, but a) that get’s expensive real fast when changing a lot of parts and b) There are other OEM companies who make parts for a variety of vehicles.  I’m not talking the utter crap places like O’Reilly’s call OEM or better than OEM, I mean companies like Lemforder, TRW etc.  The real issue is, what really are good parts.  Although I’m a chassis Engineer, I haven’t actually worked in Engineering for well over 10 years.  I remember back in the late 90’s meeting with TRW and showing them some TRW ball joints, in a TRW box with a TRW part number on them to discuss quality issues some Police departments were having with the replacement ball joints.  As soon as I showed them the part they said ‘That’s not ours and they showed me various indicators on there to prove it.  In the last 15-20 years with the increase in internet sales fake parts have only got worse.  Who would you trust for good quality stock level suspension parts?  I’m not interested in uprating bushings etc., ride is of paramount performance for way is a 1-2 season daily on Michigan’s special stages, err sorry pristine roads.  If anything past the shocks get upgraded it would be bars and end links, not any arms with bushings.  Recommendations?

My question is how do i avoid the counterfeit parts? I usually order from rockauto. Are they selling what they claim they are?

^^^ I've ordered from Rock Auto several times and always received what was promised. 

I used FCP parts to rebuild the suspension on a Volvo 850 and wasn't impressed with their longevity. The rubber bushings were showing some signs of aging after only a year or two. I used Moog parts to rebuild the front end on my GS430 and they seemed really good. I only had the car about 6-8 more months so don't know about longevity but they looked like better parts than the FCP stuff. So if you can get Moog parts for the C30 I would not hesitate to use them in my opinion. I ordered all mine from Rock Auto.

In reply to dculberson :

That's just the sort of reply I was looking for.

Thanks

Counterfeit stuff can be really hard to find, even if you buy a Moog, install it, and it doesn't wear too quickly, you can't be really sure as some of them have gotten really good. It's a genuine problem. Read this, and the links within:

https://www.aeromotiveinc.com/buyer-beware-genuine-aeromotive/

Use Moog if at all possible. I used some off-brand ball joints from Rockauto for my El Camino front end rebuild and regret it. I had a ball joint failure within 10,000 miles and luckily it didn't fully separate. I don't have a picture, but that was one ugly part. Like a chicken leg flopping around inside an empty jar of peanut butter.

I'll be going Moog on RockAuto for anything I don't plan on "improving" on my E61. Great prices and just as good or better than OEM works for me. Gotta love that warranty, too!

Folks, read the OP carefully, he had TRW parts which were not really TRW. 

I think most reputable outlets would have guards against this. I agree that Moog makes a fine product, if you are concerned about getting real parts rather than a counterfeit, perhaps you can make sure Rockauto is an authorized distributor through asking Moog.

Most distributors who I've done business with will generally have authorized retailers right on their website. Both Whiteline and Moog have easy to use locators and a list of online retailers. From there it's a lot easier to return or send pictures of the parts back to the manufacturer if they are suspected to be counterfeit.

Amazon is always a crapshoot for arguing about something being counterfeit, Ebay even more so, and Paypal is the devil. Rockauto I believe is an authorized distributor of everything that they sell, which I'm sure lead to the spat with Doorman and I highly respect them for standing their ground on that, so I'm usually confident buying from them.

In general Whiteline and Moog are my go to's.

The old school (since 1961!) alignment shop I use locally won't touch front end work unless they're using all Moog parts. That was enough of an endorsement for me when I bought the parts to do mine. Been happy with that choice on 2 vehicles so far.